Cliona Hagan: 'I wish there were more women in the country music scene'

In an industry made for men, country music sensation Cliona Hagan is determined to shake things up, writes Kate Demolder

Cliona Hagan: ‘Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would happen’.

The songs started early. “I was one of those annoying kids who never stopped singing,” a sunkissed Clíona Hagan (34) tells me over Zoom from a wooden log cabin in her Tyrone home.“My granny sat through it all,” she laughs. “God love her.”

Hagan and her husband are just back from Tenerife, for a rare week away (“look at the cut of me, I’m still so burnt”) a glimpse of agency before a summer tethered to festivals.

“The festival season started on Monday,” she smiles, her white teeth gleaming beneath a deep pink lip.

“My brother-in-law runs the Kilbeggan Country Music Festival, and has done for maybe the past six years or so. It’s unbelievable. There’s something so cool about being in a barn or marquee and seeing people dancing through the night, whatever the weather. I have a front row seat to that every night and I consider myself very lucky.”

Wherever you find Hagan, you’ll find a family member near; her husband Simon Sheerin — part of the Sheerin family responsible for the Sheerin Family Band (consisting of six to seven family members out of 11) — writes, tours and encourages her; her grandmother encouraged a longtime love of Dolly Parton and Daniel O’Donnell; and her mother is responsible for the sole original song Hagan has released, ‘Thank You, Mother’.

“I just wanted to thank her for all the strength she’s given me,” Hagan smiles, her hands shaping her sentences. “To keep going, to not be afraid, and for opening myself up to scrutiny. That said, there’s a lot more original music coming soon – I just can’t wait for everyone to hear what we’ve been working on.”

Cliona Hagan: "there’s a lot more original music coming soon"

ENCOURAGEMENT

Despite a self-confessed only-sort-of-musical family (“my two older sisters sang about the house, and apparently my grandad’s mother was a good singer,” she muses, “but that’s it”), Hagan was encouraged, celebrated and trained early.

She first gained national attention at the age of nine when she appeared on the BBC Ulster Christmas Special, and then The Late Late Toy Show at 12, eventually culminating in Tyrone representation in the final of RTÉ’s All Ireland Talent Show in 2009, where her powerful voice sang opera.

At 18, she went to study music at Queen’s University Belfast, followed by a PGCE at Edinburgh University, where she taught at secondary level before leaving for a job in Lurgan, 25 miles outside of Belfast. While teaching there, she came to realise her musical itch hadn’t been scratched.

“I always loved teaching and I always knew I wanted to do something, in some capacity, with music,” she says, glancing to the side, as if peering into her former life.

“But, I always knew that I had to sing. Being on stage was my first love. So, I remember, I came to my mother one day and said, you know, I’ve got this opportunity to teach in a school full time, or should I really just give it [music] a go?

“Her advice was the best thing she could have told me. She told me not to let fear hold me back. That’s what has really stuck with me. So I went for it, and I’m so glad I did.”

That was eight years ago — and she still remembers her first gig. “It was in the Bellingham Arms in Bundoran,” she laughs. “And to say I was nervous was a complete understatement.”

Cliona Hagan: "I do wish there were more women in the scene, and I know there are coming up because I’m asked for advice all the time"

THE MUSIC

From there, Hagan grew to sell out venues — both by herself and alongside industry greats like Philomena Begley and Nathan Carter — including her first arena gig, in the Gleneagle INEC Arena Killarney this January. Awards, too, began to pile in; RTÉ’s Irish Country Music Awards (ICMA), Best Newcomer; Irish Country Music Radio Newcomer; Mid Ulster District Council Civic Award in Recognition of Achievement in Arts and Music; Irish TV Best Newcomer and The Sunday World Female Vocalist of the Year four years running (2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020).

The music Hagan chooses to sing captures the routine frustrations of life among the white working class, and although her tone is never bitter, she doesn’t deny the ironies and absurdities of that life, either.

“There’s a cowboy that I know ridin’ in the rodeo / He’s a feller that I’m fondest of / I love him and he loves me and that’s the way it ought to be / But he drives me crazy when we’re makin’ love cause he always starts to yodel (yodel),” opens Cowboy Yodel, one of her most popular hits. In 1, 2, 3 she recites the simple joys of “Having a good time a bottle of red wine things are going my way / Sugar in the morning sugar in the evening everything is just okay,” while too revealing the yearning sensitivities of both modern and vintage country music remains settled on the same genre, love.

On I Came Straight To You she sings, “Well it seemed such a long shot / But somehow my aim was true / Like a moonbeam across the water baby / I came straight to you.”

In country music, perhaps more so than any other genre, there is no shame in giving the audience what they want — which is, as critics read it, largely men.

In a new book called Her Country music journalist Marissa R. Moss notes that in recent decades, country radio stations have played fewer songs by women than they did in the nineties when The Chicks, formerly The Dixie Chicks, dominated country charts as well as Billboard’s Top 100 (the Chicks’ reign ended in 2003, following an infamous proto-cancelling, and precedent-setting when it came to country stars when they criticised President Bush and the Iraq War). 

In 2022, for instance, of the 15 artists listed in the Top Ten songs on Billboard’s year-end Country Airplay chart, just two are women.

“Country music went from being synonymous with powerful women to truck-riding ‘bro country’ crooners,” Moss writes. “Country is obviously a very male-dominated field,” Hagan shares. “Personally I’ve been very lucky and never had any bad incidents. I have heard stories, but nothing bad has thankfully happened to me.

“I do wish there were more women in the scene, and I know there are coming up because I’m asked for advice all the time. Which is great! But if something unfair were to happen to me that I believe was based in the fact that I was just a woman, I wouldn’t be afraid to speak up.”

Cliona Hagan: All about girl power

GIRL POWER

A number of women performers, like Hagan, have insisted on changing the narrative — like Miranda Lambert and Maren Morris – as well as Kacey Musgraves who built a fan base on her own, becoming a crossover success — in 2018, she released Golden Hour which won the Grammy for Album of the Year — despite attracting only moderate interest from country-radio programmers. And Mickey Guyton, a Black country singer and songwriter who has earned some impressive distinctions (four Grammy nominations, a performance at the White House) without having had a proper country hit.

The country-music establishment can seem about as partisan as they come, something Hagan is not keen to divulge in (“I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so no, politics is not something I’m into speaking about”) but her alliance to feminism and girl power is notably grounded.

“I’m all about girl power,” she laughs.

“You need that as a woman, for others to pave the way and give invaluable advice. I’m just so lucky I have that.

“That’s why I love Dolly [Parton, long-noted as among Hagan’s idols], she has such strength. Not only is she a singer, but she’s a songwriter and actor, and has done a huge amount of charity work.

“She seems so grounded while she’s achieved so much — that’s really what makes me look up to her so much, her integrity.”

Cliona Hagan: "I always say my prayers and try and get to mass as much as I can"

STRENGTH FROM ABOVE

Like Dolly, Hagan is religious, too. Raised Catholic on the border town of Ballinderry, faith, she says, in integral to her life’s work. “I believe that, you know, you need that strength from above. I always say my prayers and you know, try and get to mass as much as I can,” she smiles, again.

Country music, both as a genre and an industry, exists with a maddening contradiction: for some time now, women have been increasingly excluded from mainstream playlists, even as the best country music is increasingly written and performed by women. And no one illustrates that better than Hagan, who writes songs as well as anyone.

In 2019, her music hit the zeitgeist, by way of an announcement that she was to be on Ireland’s Dancing With The Stars as a contestant. It resulted in more gigs, tours (including one in 2024, where she will be the first woman to host what she calls a ‘sun trip,’ — a country music tour in the Spanish city of Huelva) and choices, including that of an album created to celebrate her icon, Ms Parton. The Dolly Songbook album, which she continues to perform with the Sheerin Family Band, is among her prides and joys, featuring tracks including Jolene and I Will Always Love You.

Confirmation that she was to stay amidst zeitgeist-worthy consideration, however, came this spring, by way of her own stamp, with An Post.

“It’s just so shocking and so weird and so amazing,” she laughs. “It made my mammy cry!” An Post’s first collection of Country Music stamps, released earlier this year, features five of Ireland’s most iconic country music stars; Daniel O’Donnell, Philomena Begley, Nathan Carter, Big Tom and Hagan.

“I was obviously just blown away,” she smiles, looking down. “And just so honoured.

“At first I thought they were joking when they told me — never in my wildest dreams did I think this would happen.

“And now I’m getting so many letters from family and friends and fans with my face on the front of them. I’m just so honoured, and still can’t quite believe it.”

• Cliona Hagan was photographed by Kate Nolan (soulsourcedelopements.com) 
• Shoot took place at Wineport Lodge, Glasson, Athlone, Co Westmeath (wineport.ie), dressed in clothes by Kode, Tullamore, Co Offaly. Hair by Joan O’Meara.
• Cliona features in An Post’s inaugural Country Music stamp collection, which pays tribute to the icons of Ireland’s country music scene. Alongside Cliona, the collection features Daniel O’Donnell, Philomena Begley, Nathan Carter, and the late Big Tom.